GUWAHATI, May 7 - Making a case to oppose the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, former Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta today said the proposed law has the potential to make the indigenous people minorities in Assam and frustrate the very purpose of the Assam Accord.
�It violates the main clause of the Assam Accord. While we are pressing for constitutional safeguard to the indigenous people, the proposed amendment has posed a threat to the language, culture, heritage and economy of Assam,� Mahanta said in his memorandum to the JPC.
Mahanta, who was the first to appear before the JPC at the Administrative Staff College here, was accompanied by former minister Biraj Kumar Sarma and another Assam Agitation leader and present MLA Utpal Dutta and others.
The memorandum was signed by both Mahanta and Sarma as signatories of the Assam Accord. Along with the seven-page memorandum, Mahanta also submitted to the JPC a copy of the Assam Accord, memorandums submitted to the government representatives in the past and other documents to justify his assertions on the threat posed by illegal migrants.
Mahanta maintained that if religious minorities are given citizenship, Assam would have to bear the largest burden with 2-3 lakh Bangladeshi Bengalis likely to settle in each Assembly constituency of the State. �The indigenous people of the State will be reduced to minority in terms of linguistic, political and cultural numbers,� he added.
Mahanta said at present, Assam alone has been put to take the burden of foreigners who entered into Assam from East Pakistan and Bangladesh, and this is at the cost of loss of employment generation and fertile land for the local people and loss of economy.
�In such a situation, the latest initiative of the Central government to show sympathy to foreign nationals will frustrate the very purpose of the Assam Accord which was executed with the aim and objective of protecting the people of Assam from all attempts to usurp the language, culture, heritage and economy,� he said.
He said under no circumstance can Assam take the burden of migrants who entered Assam after March 24, 1971. �Assam is not like the other hill states like Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh where one needs ILP (inner line permit) to enter and outsiders cannot buy land,� he said.
He said the JPC, led by its chairman BJP MP Rajendra Agrawal, gave a patient hearing to the submissions made by them.
The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), an ally of the ruling BJP-led coalition government in Assam, also made a separate representation opposing the Bill.
AGP president and State Agriculture Minister Atul Bora claimed that the amendment was against the spirit of the preamble of the Constitution, which defines India as a secular state.
He also pointed out that the work of updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the State would be affected adversely.
The AGP had earlier threatened to pull out of the State government if the BJP-led NDA government in the Centre pushes the amendment Bill.
